what is CouchCircle?
a cozy, real-time watch-party app. one couch, one shared remote, one queue — the crew stays in sync. think movie night over the internet, but actually together and nothing like a corporate video call.
what you can watch
- YouTube links — paste a youtube.com or youtu.be URL into the queue. standard embeds; the video needs to be embeddable (most are).
- direct media URLs — MP4, WebM, HLS (.m3u8), or any HTTP(S) link your browser can play. the server hosting the file needs proper CORS headers (or a browser extension can bypass it on your own machine).
- screen share — P2P, no relay server (STUN only). great on a local network or when both sides have decent upload. quality dips with more of the crew watching.
the honest limitations
- Netflix / Disney+ / Hulu / any DRM won't work and we're not pretending otherwise. DRM means the browser actively prevents the video from being shared this way. no workarounds, no extensions — use screen share if you own a copy.
- CORS on direct links— if the server doesn't send
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *, your browser blocks playback. only the person hosting the file can fix that, or use screen share instead. - screen share without TURN — only STUN (Google's public servers). if two people are behind symmetric NATs or certain corporate firewalls, the WebRTC connection may not make it. no TURN relay yet.
- format support — depends entirely on what your browser can play natively. MP4/H.264 is the safest bet. HEVC and AV1 coverage varies.
authorized media only
only share content you have the right to share — stuff you own, stuff that's publicly licensed, or stuff the creator has explicitly made available for embedding. CouchCircle is a sync layer; it doesn't host or proxy media, but the legal and ethical responsibility for what the crew watches together is yours.
a note on sesh mode 🍃
sesh mode is a social-ritual layer — rotation tracking, spark countdowns, snack votes. it's there to add structure and a bit of humor to the session, not to tell anyone what to do or consume. CouchCircle never gives substance advice, dosing guidance, or procurement recommendations. ever. if you see text that sounds like that, it's flavor copy only — like a movie having a character light a candle.
everything dissolves into the haze 💨
couches are ephemeral, entirely in-memory on the PartyKit server. no accounts, no database, no history after the crew drifts off. once the last person leaves, the couch dissolves into the haze. share the couch code while the sesh is live — you can't rejoin a couch that's already gone cold.